What Makes A Good Roguelike/Roguelite?

if you've been playing a lot of indie games in the last few years odds are you've come across a few roguelikes or roguelites this subgenre of game has made a significant Resurgence lately and for good reasons I myself love these games I've designed play tested and personally played over 1 000 hours with almost 100 different roguelikes through my experience I've learned a lot as to why this genre is so popular and more importantly what I think makes a good roguelike quick disclaimer I will be touching on many points in this video that may not always apply to every game out there this video will mostly be focusing on action-based roguelikes and of course these are just my own opinions if you disagree then feel free to share your thoughts in the comments down below before getting into what makes a good roguelike I think it's important to talk about why we've been seeing more and more of these games recently today roguelikes are built around two main ideas randomly generated levels and permanent death while these are the only two main Concepts both can be bent quite a bit depending on the game roguelites for instance May treat the idea of permanent death a bit differently where dying on the very first run is almost inevitable as you may be required to spend resources you've collected on your run to permanently upgrade your character and have a much more fair chance at beating it on subsequent runs in fact more and more roguelikes tend to actually be Rogue lights nowadays this sudden rise of the Sub sub genre maybe because Rogue lights are overall much more accessible and feel less punishing since you constantly grow stronger the more you play giving the player a better chance at winning every run even if they've been unlucky with the random nature of the genre a game such as enter the gungeon that doesn't have true permanent upgrades outside of unlocking new items that may appear in future runs is definitely beatable from the very start but doesn't get easier outside of the player getting more comfortable with the core mechanics and gameplay throughout their play time while a rogue light such as Hades is close to impossible to beat on the first run but progressively gets easier and easier as you upgrade your mirror attributes giving you access to permanent upgrades and just to make things less confusing I will from now on be referring to both genres as roguelikes allowing these games to be more accessible has brought more players to try out these roguelikes not to mention that the replayability aspect works great for streaming platforms as a lot of these games are built around the idea that every run is unique so viewers will always be watching something new and different but there is one other big reason as to why we're seeing a rise in the genre today and that's because designing a roguelike is fairly simple when designing a roguelike the first step tends to be finding a core mechanic and designing the gameplay the actual roguelike elements usually going come after fleshing out the core gameplay some games may have a heavy focus on gameplay such as the fast-paced action of scorchbringer allowing the player to jump Dash shoot use a melee attack to stun enemies all of this at very high speed from the very start of every run or have a nice death where the player can jump Dash have multiple combos with their basic attacks and even a huge charge attack from the start of every run other games may not worry as much about core gameplay and mechanics and will instead let the random nature of the genre create unique gameplay between individual runs such as the Simplicity of vampire survivors restricting the player to only movement controls while weapons are used automatically once that's been figured out most of what's left outside of anything artistic is coming up with large amounts of items passives or weapons for the player to randomly encounter if done well a lot of the wow factor of individual runs will be encountered by the player themselves finding random or unique combinations the designer might not even be aware of some of the greatest and more exciting item combinations ultimately the designer doesn't necessarily need to rely on coming up with specific synergies when the player is the one creating their own unique experiences and combinations but all this can sometimes be easier said than done while roguelikes may be on the simpler side to design they're much harder to balance and making a quality fun roguelike is what a real challenge comes so with all of that out of the way I can finally start talking about what I think makes a good roguelike the first time you play Hades the game throws you at the start of a run using the sword the player has no choice but to fight their way and progress as far as possible with the little that's been given to them until they ultimately perish and every run from there on will be randomly generated but will always start roughly the same begin on level 1 fight the same few enemies same few bosses random events effectively playing the same level over and over again so why would playing this on repeat be considered fun well before starting a new run the player can choose a unique weapon each with their own mechanics not only that they can also choose one of four aspects for each weapon that may also change its play style further from its original form once they've acquired their weapon of choice they can change upgrades of the mirror to fit their next Run's playstyle choose a Keepsake that may slightly manipulate the RNG of the run to their favor as well as choose a special companion for some limited use bonuses and if they want to spice up the Run even further they can even add some heat to customize the difficulty so yes while the player is always going to be starting over Hades does an amazing job at making each run feel unique from the start a good roguelike will negate a feeling of pure repetition by allowing the player to start with something a little different each run some of the best examples will allow these choices to help prioritize a specific build from the start in warm snow a Chinese Hack and Slash roguelike the player will start each run by choosing a boon from a god with its own mechanics that will determine which Elemental damage the character will be dealing they may then be able to pick a free Relic that may synergize with the Boon and start the run from there on any items found may impact the Run differently depending on whether it be synergetic or not with choices made prior to the run ravida a 2d action Dungeon Crawler lets the player choose a starting weapon with a possible unique variant and then pick multiple tickets that will add small stat upgrades or even items for the next run at the cost of some starting Health making each run unique from the start almost every single roguelike I've played has its own way of customizing gameplay before beginning a new whether it be different characters passives weapons a roguelike that can give the player some sort of customization while still being able to truly experience the randomness of the genre is a thumbs up in my book foreign [Music] is a fast-paced hack and slash Dungeon Crawler roguelike where the player is ultimately playing as the Avatar throughout runs they'll encounter a few characters one of them being knocks the unfortunate a friendly NPC that will let you pick an item free of charge except that these items are cursed and come with a heavy downside and one of these items is no other than the renowned Double Trouble deal double damage but receive double damage the ultimate greed item once picked up you proceed to destroy every enemy that stands in your path feeling strong overpowered as if nothing can survive your strength until you get killed by a generic enemy crust items are a staple in many roguelikes they tend to give a huge power boost which is always fun to experience as a player but the downside of such items will usually be the main cause of death and yet when that happens the player will likely not feel cheated or blamed a game for its difficulty since they're the ones that picked the item with the increased risk I think the clarity's choices is critical to making a good roguelike in fact I believe risk versus reward might be one of if not the most important Concept in a roguelike curses are an obvious example but there are so many other ways to experience this idea the choice of facing an elite fight in slate Aspire for great rewards instead of a normal fight to preserve health for later the choice to preserve bullets from high quality weapons and enter the gungeon to take down that later boss more efficiently at the cost of making normal rooms tougher the choice to buy an item at a shop in The Binding of Isaac that is completely useless at the time of purchase just for a chance at having it be very useful later down the run every roguelike has many variations of risk versus reward they are a huge factor in the genre some games entire mechanics resolve around it such as blazing beaks where the entire premise is that enemies drop items that only have downsides but are meant to be kept long enough for the player to reach the shop and exchange them for actual beneficial items or ravida where currency is Health in my opinion this might also be a good reason as to why roguelikes tend to be fairly challenging games as a whole with all of these risks that the player has to eventually take in order to become powerful enough to progress they need to adapt to new and different play Styles and difficulties added to the run if the player decide to evade as many risks as they can they might not be strong enough to beat a run balancing out the risk versus the reward is an important part of game balance and key to roguelikes as a whole forgebringer is a pretty fun and hectic game the first time you start a new file the game feels very engaging as the player had the ability to constantly attack Dash around in midair from one enemy to another and very quickly you upgrade permanent passives that allow you to expand your starting abilities such as deflecting bullets creating a wave attack upon dashing to the ground unleashing a fury of attacks on a cooldown but after a few hours I personally wasn't too excited to start a new run while each run had randomized elements I realized that they felt and looked very similar to One Another Not only would I only find a single unique passive once per floor but the passive didn't really change the way I'd play differently from run to run the game felt so focused on its core gameplay that the roguelike elements didn't feel impactful enough for me to want to play again so while the game itself feels good and is flashy and overall fun I found it to not have great replayability to me a good roguelike needs to feel different from one run to another when I look at the start of a run in ravida and compare it to the end you can clearly see a difference same goes for comparing one run to a different one for me successful roguelikes are the ones where I don't obviously predict or expect how the run is going to go from the start the randomness of the roguelike elements Force the player to adapt and discover new builds at any point and expand outside of their comfort play style now it's true that being able to customize your run prior to starting it as previously discussed does obviously impact this point quite a bit but I think it is important to distinguish no matter how great A Game's design and gameplay is if runs feel in place similarly from one another then I'd rather not have it be classified as a roguelike I actually believe scorchbranger would have been a more enjoyable experience for me if it did not have any of the roguelike elements and was instead developed as a classic action adventure or maybe even a matrid Vania game [Music] when you first glance at dungreed the game looks very generic just another 2D action platformer Dungeon Crawler but it didn't take long for me to realize how much of a Hidden Gem this roguelike is outside of smooth controls great enemy and Boss Designs as well as an amazing soundtrack the game is packed with different items and a lot of them are incredibly synergetic with one another this huge pool of items allow the player to constantly find unique builds almost every run here's an example of a fairly generic run I started the Run finding a hammer of tegis which increases my critical chance by a significant amount and the cosmos sword which outside of being a good damaging melee weapon allows me to send a wave of Cosmos with high damage and range on the Fairly short cooldown I decide to increase my critical chance and critical damage as much as possible so that my wave can kill enemies in a single hit from a distance few floors later I replaced my sword with Gwendolyn for a bigger area of effect attack on a short cooldown and come across a sword of vines which deals poison damage but more importantly attacks multiple time every swing I combined this with the eye patch which adds a one percent chance to deal 50 damage with every hit the poison snake Fang which increases my poison damage the electric feather which adds shock damage to every hit and the blessings of the sage which adds true damage to every hit my sword Vines Now trigger poison shock true damage and a chance of an additional 50 damage multiple times every swing from there on I would use Gwendolyn to take care of groups of small enemies with my high critical stats and use my sort of vines for high DPS or damage over time against bigger foes this was the first run I recorded for this video and while it may not have been the most impressive synergetic run it shown me that even a simple random run in this game gave me many opportunities to find and create my own strategies using synergies I came across 20 to 30 more items during this run and could have gone a completely different direction but decided to go this route with my own little self-made synergies synergies are a staple in roguelikes and throughout playing all of these games I've categorized synergies in three different ways the first is what I like to call minor synergies these usually come down to stat changes that may not be obvious synergies at burst glance minor stat Buffs are always beneficial but may be more impactful depending on the player's current build for instance increasing your headshot critical hit damage when using a sniper and gunfire reborn is a simple and efficient combo since you'll already be focused on hitting these precious crits having a higher rate of fire is more beneficial in revita if you have a chance to fire a bullet that will cause poison damage the more bullets you shoot the more likely you'll be able to cause poison damage to opponents during a fight if the player was playing with a slow rate of fire procking that status effect to multiple enemies in a short period of time may prove to be more challenging minor synergies are the spices sprinkled in roguelikes the slight variances that will make every run feel unique even if you end up with a similar build to another previous one these are usually a great way to keep the player engaged with constant small rewards that help enhance their current build the second variation is what I like to call major synergies this is the bread and butter that directly impact and support the players build these usually emphasize particular keywords that may be minor or completely useless in some builds but build defining in others for instance increasing your fire Elemental damage while using fire type weapons in gunfire reborn or going for a basic attack build in Wizard of legend by getting items such as the combo gloves which add an extra combo to your basic attack flat Gauntlet which allows you to destroy enemy projectiles with basic attacks Cabos bubble gum which adds a chance to shoot a bouncing bubble when using basic attacks double-edged chest increasing basic attacks but reducing all other damage Cabo's Citrus sweets adding a chance to throw a ball of lightning with basic attacks all of this combined creating this devastating machine gun build finding items that help create these major synergies is very satisfying giving the player to real realization and surprise to find an item that perfectly fits their current build can be one of the most rewarding feelings when playing a roguelike knowing that the items are randomized throughout the game means that finding these synergies can make the player feel lucky a welcoming moment especially when playing these challenging games that being said developers do have to be careful when using too many specific kinds of major synergies I have come across several scenarios where so many items were major synergies that I end up not caring about a majority of items because they kept on being useless to my current build for instance in backpack hero a turn-based item management roguelike many items are classified into different groups that are only useful to certain specific archetype wands and magical items are only usable if the player has Mana stones or a way to generate Mana arrows need bows bricks brick walls and balloons require other structures while I do enjoy the design Behind These synergies having a majority of these times only be usable to specific archetypes made collecting battle rewards and opening chests frustrating at times when the items were even usable in my current build if the player was to find a major synergetic item in a roguelike that doesn't synergized very well with their current build I think it's important for these items to still have some sort of benefit so that they may not feel completely useless for instance in The Binding of Isaac finding any bomb modifications while also having Dr fetus which transforms your attacks into bombs is obviously incredibly synergetic but that doesn't mean that finding these bomb modifications without any bumps energy is pointless even if they're not very useful they can still be used in some scenarios I think there is a fine line in roguelikes where having many items be too specific can be detrimental while also limiting the amount of creativity the player may have by finding their own synergies and just to be clear I'm not saying backpack hero is a bad game I actually do enjoy playing it at times it just so happens to be a good example for this second Synergy type and same goes for any games I will be using as examples throughout this video now there is one last type of synergy that while may be a bit different and not as common definitely helps spice up some games Synergy is where instead of having the players strictly work on building their own synergetic items set the game instead features its own predetermined set and combination that will have literal coded synergies and I like to call those scripted synergies for instance in enter the gungeon if the player found the awp a fairly generic sniper rifle but then comes across the scope a low tier item that increases weapon accuracy a quick sound effect will trigger and the player will now have the 360 Yes scope Synergy by owning these two specific items which now turns the awp into a much deadlier weapon making a deal 50 more damage whenever the player spins 360 Degrees before firing ensuing for some hilarious results many action roguelikes you like ravida undermine wizard of Legend the list goes on one end there is obviously less creativity to have sets of items in the game coded to always give you the same specific bonuses when combined it isn't the same satisfaction as finding synergies that the player created themselves but on the other hand these scripted synergies can bring another kind of excitement a lot of these games tend not to give these sets easily since the player needs to find specific combinations in a large pool of items so when the player happens to find one it can feel very lucky unique and in some cases rewarding having put in the effort and patience in searching for that final piece of the puzzle feels amazing in the end some games may even hide these sets from the player altogether done greed's item list hints at all the possible combination but doesn't allow you to see their benefits only sharing the information to the players lucky or patient enough to encounter them almost like achievement hunting it can be hard for roguelikes to keep the thrill of the unknown once you've beaten it a few times but in many cases even after hundreds of hours I have not even seen all the scripted synergies in most of my roguelikes and that definitely helps me want to go back to play them hoping to see and uncover all of these unique secrets and often very powerful interactions in my experience the best action roguelikes have a Perfect Blend and balance of synergies especially between minor and major synergies if you're watching this video that means you very likely played or at least heard of The Binding of Isaac it's considered a classic and was a big contributor to the Resurgence of roguelikes personally I think the game has many examples of roguelike design choices executed to Perfection but for this video I use this game to talk about a topic that I think many roguelikes struggle to perfect level design level design is a very interesting topic in roguelikes that I don't hear many people talk about differently than many other gaming genres it doesn't tend to be as much of a priority and for good reasons in most cases the enjoyment of the level Design Within a game usually comes from the excitement of exploring and discovering as well as figuring out how to Traverse that level designs when playing a platformer such as Celeste every new screen is a new puzzle challenging the player to figure out how to proceed most of the joy comes from the thrill of finally traversing the obstacles and the excitement as to what we'll now lay ahead even outside of Platformers action games such as hyper like Drifter death's door or any metroidvania heavily rely on level design to keep the game exciting with constant new discoveries and puzzle elements but roguelikes are one of the only genres that do not have this privilege with randomly generated levels the player will likely quickly recognize similar or identical level layouts between runs these games their engagement and replayability from a different builds items and synergies levels are mostly an excuse to host the unique runs this leads to many roguelikes having very limited level designs since it's not as much of a priority some games like potato bone razor Minion or soulstone survivors rely on just a single non-modifiable level layout where most or all of the run will take place While others usually more fleshed out games such as enter the gungeon skull the hero's Lair or peglin will have multiple room layouts that will randomly be scattered through a run the goal of this system is to give the illusion that each run is filled with different unique rooms and levels even though they're all just pulled from a library of layouts scattered randomly in each run this definitely does help make each run feel unique in its level design but there is obviously a limit to this method since these games are pulling from a limited library after playing through a game long enough the player will quickly start seeing similar patterns in some games such as enter the gungeon rooms are a lot more distinguishable since each of them is a specific layout picked from a library of rooms but some other games manage to hide this much better by instead having chunks of levels be randomized instead of entire rooms for instance the way debt cells manages its random level layouts is by having each floor be filled with random fragments of levels stringed together to create one single giant level filled with smaller randomized layouts but the truth is each of these are viable level design methods depending on the game while some may be more complex and diverse than others roguelikes are still an indie genre and not every game has the option of being grandiose games like rotato are aware of their limitations and would therefore choose to focus more on the gameplay than level design which is completely understandable but for the games that use the so-called library of levels then I tend to expect the level design to complement the gameplay for instance when playing gunfire were born each level is filled with traps obstacles and walls to take cover and while this might not sound revolutionary the player will likely be traversing these areas very differently depending on the build they are currently using if using a long range sniper build they may take cover more often and look for opportunities to be on higher ground but if they focus on more short-range weapons such as shotguns they might prefer running into the action moving around the level and paying much more attention to traps and explosive barrels even though the levels are structured in a very simple way they don't get boring as their purpose is to complement the gameplay also these levels don't need complex puzzles and traps since the player will be encountering them so often having simple quick and efficient traps and puzzles in a genre that relies heavily on repetition is probably a better idea and this brings me back to The Binding of Isaac this game has a ridiculous amount of different room layouts to the point where even after hundreds of hours you could still end up being surprised and while once again many games might not have the privilege to have such a vast library of layouts each room in The Binding of Isaac is not only going to feel different every time depending on the character and build you are playing but most rooms are also quick and efficient the player is constantly moving from one room to another sometimes in a matter of seconds the pacing is so quick that it doesn't even matter if a room is boring the screen is constantly changing keeping the player engaged each room is a new tiny challenge the player needs to adapt and complete before moving to the next these small constantly changing rooms are in my eyes a major part of The Binding of Isaac's success not only does it keep the game fast paced but clearing one of these rooms will usually Grant a small random reward and when the player does encounter a larger more complicated room it will require them to suddenly change play style and get ready for a challenge changing the pacing for a short moment before going back to fast paced gameplay the game is constantly keeping the player engaged by having short fun diverse rooms with constant rewards as well as having challenges and a form of larger rooms to occasionally keep the player on edge a brilliant combination foreign is full of unique enemies while not all of them may be particularly interesting at first glance one out of the 140 plus enemies has caught my designer's eyes attention the one and only shroomer this bullet can variant fiercely runs up to the player and will shoot two quick projectiles that will always miss in fact if the player just stands in front of a shroomer motionless they will never take damage and I love this enemy so why bother designing an enemy that is programmed to miss all their shots but because the moment a player is forced to move the Schumer will attempt to shoot once again but this time since the player isn't standing still the shots actually become much more threatening in a game where everything is attempting to shoot at you with perfect aim this enemy ends up being quite Dangerous by shooting in a very awkward way and the best part is that whenever you get hit by this enemy the player knows they could have been able to fully evade or predict these bullets with such a simple pattern taking damage is most likely just a player's fault the Schumer isn't complicated and doesn't need to be in order to create an engaging enemy this design is genius and many have entered the gungeon's enemy designs follow a similar and simple pattern each enemy usually has no more than a single moveset generally just shooting in some specific way and it's very simple to learn these patterns but challenging to master evading them instead of relying on complex enemy design enter the gungeon relies on Simplicity pushed to the extreme rooms are filled with simple enemies each with their own basic attack while each of these attacks may be predictable having multiple enemies combined each with their own attacks creates an impressive bullet hell experience that the player can follow and predict if they're focused enough to analyze the situation in each room enemy design is obviously a major part of what makes a good roguelike similarly to level design players will be encountering the same enemies over and over again so variety is important this subject is a lot more dependent on the specific game so this isn't something I want to touch on too much however in most cases I've noticed a trend between many of these games that I want to bring up enemies are not only important in order to create conflict and challenges but there are also very important as a way for the player to actually use and try out whatever build they currently have yes this might sound very obvious but differently from other genres the player is regularly going to be in situations where they have a set of items or upgrades that they may have never seen combined before and potentially never will again even after hundreds of hours of gungeon gameplay if I were to just see a screenshot of an enter the gungeon loadout I might have an idea of what would happen if the player were to press the shoot button but I wouldn't know for sure and would definitely not know how it feels to play with this particular set of items this is one of many reasons why a lot of games will tend to have simple and easy enemies scattered throughout a run even when reaching the final floor and enter the gungeon the player will still be encountering enemies from the very first room of the game while they may not be much of a challenge they're great at letting the player try out their new and unique builds and feel powerful because at the end of the day clearing out an entire room of enemies with ease is an awesome feeling it is important to have diverse enemies but making sure that there will always be some sort of punching bag throughout runs for the player to have fun with their builds seems to be a common Trend if every enemy was challenging and complicated there wouldn't be much room to play around and get familiar with every new item and upgrades added in have a nice death almost all enemies serve as some sort of punching bag outside of locked rooms where the player is forced to fight waves of enemies levels are generally filled with spread out foes for the player to take down one by one with whatever build they have almost none of these encounters are challenging in any way but serve as a way for the player to try out and have fun with what they have been given before having to fight an actual challenging encounter such as an upcoming boss speaking of bosses I'm actually not going to cover this subject since this is far too dependent on the game but that doesn't obviously mean they're not important on the contrary bosses tend to be a test of the player's build maybe one day I'll dedicate a video on Boss design but for now let us just move on to the next design point by now you might have noticed that I really enjoy ravida while the game does have in my opinion a few minor design and balance issues here and there it is filled with content and is great at showcasing traditional roguelike elements done well one of them being secret rooms and special rooms whenever you enter a new room there is a chance it will be connected to a special room such as a large chest room each floor can have between two to six special rooms these kinds of rooms are very common in roguelikes and help make random builds a little bit more consistent by giving the player more choices to work with even though encountering one of these special rooms has Randomness involved such as spending a full health at a Fortuner room for a 66 chance at getting pickups or items these rooms are very clear and completely up to the player as to whether they wish to take the benefits or not every roguelike has some variation of this design shops in general are staple in many of them they tend to be frequent but refreshing since they always offer different options each time the player encounters them another example are special events common in many deck building roguelikes similarly to previous examples these encounters might not be new or unique anymore after a few hours of gameplay since there's only a fine number of them but the choices might be more impactful depending on the type of run the player currently has while finding one ask for secret rooms they tend to Simply give the player a reward without much sacrifice encountering a secret room for the very first time might actually be surprising but the point isn't always to make these rewards challenging to find more often than not they're here to give some consistent rewards to players that pay attention in genres where almost everything requires some sort of sacrifice or risk in order to get something back special and secret rooms are a great way to keep roguelikes engaging by adding consistency and excitement to a run [Music] voidigo is a pretty crazy game to say the least it's a top-down roguelike shooter with a focus on Visual and gameplay chaos chaos you start off by choosing a character a weapon and an ability that will likely heavily influence the run with its unique mechanic but very quickly the player will come to the realization that in this game not only is the starting ability one of a kind but almost every single upgrade you encounter is similarly very unique you see voidigo doesn't focus on items that give stat changes in this game power-ups are very different from one another items that change your bullets into different animals each with their own mechanics items that will occasionally spawn buttons the player can jump onto unleash different effects items that spawn companions to Aid you in battle each with their own abilities and even items that will launch a giant fist at the enemy whenever the player reloads each with their own respective effects all of these wild items create significant gameplay differences and ultimately make runs very unique and of course chaotic but that's not to say that there aren't ways to Simply upgrade your basic stats the game does have a few traditional upgrades such as faster movement speed increased max ammo faster reload but these items are just a tiny fraction of power-ups in this game the way voidigo implements minor stat and number changes is with the ability to upgrade each of these power-ups can be upgraded a certain amount times enhancing the item's effect by adding different values to it for instance upgrading the Frog button will decrease the items respawn cooldown by 15 upgrading the rat bullets will increase the amount of well rats by 25 percent throughout playing all these roguelikes I've noticed two distinct approaches as to how items and upgrades enhance a player's character I like to call them number adjustments and mechanical adjustments number adjustments are your classic stat changes and what is used as minor synergies as previously mentioned such as increased damage defense movement speed cooldown while mechanical adjustments are items and upgrades that will add or change certain mechanics into games such as adding a status effect to your weapon bullets bouncing off walls bullets exploding immunity to a certain negative effect and both of these approaches tend to synergize with each other just as brought up in the Synergy section of the video mechanical adjustment items that have a chance to make your bullets deal fire damage will synergize very well with a number adjustment item that will increase the player's fire rate ultimately increasing the chances of firing a fire bullet now it is fair to say that when it comes to designing your roguelike number adjustments are much easier to program since they only require changing a numeric value within the game's code this is why a lot of smaller games such as Tiny Rogues or rotato rely much more on this approach and while I do think a combination of both designs with rather a focus on mechanical adjustments tend to make roguelikes more fun and interesting a smaller game like rotato does put a lot of care into its number adjustments in this game while more than 80 of items are just number adjustments a lot of the items combine multiple stats including some downgrades making it much more interesting for the player to figure out which items are worth purchasing and which are too risky but in my experience playing all these games I've actually come to realize that a majority of games that I tend not to play anymore are games that in my eyes do not balance out these two design approaches well enough for instance Soul Stone Survivor is a top-down action hack and slash roguelike is a very satisfying game where you quickly Reign hell on your opponents using different abilities the first time I saw all the different spells and abilities I could choose from I was very excited each one of them is so visually pleasing and when combined all at once my character already looked like an overpowered wizard but after Choosing My arsenal of six maximum abilities every upgrade that followed were simple number adjustment upgrades more damage more defense more movement speed more area of effect even upgrades that would give a chance at dealing minor status effects such as poison didn't really feel very impactful in a game this chaotic ultimately once I had my spells picked the following upgrades didn't have any impact on my playstyle I was still going in circle collecting Loot and watching the fireworks now to the game's credit the game is still very amusing and probably isn't looking into making the game more strategic or mechanically interesting and that's fair but after only three to four hours of gameplay I was already wishing for something a little different I asking myself what if abilities started off more tame but some upgrades could actually change spells such as your meteor attack now leaves a pool of fire this would quickly create the same amount of chaos but could feel more earned and unique since the upgrades would actually change your abilities depending on the choices made this would of course have required a lot of design changes and ultimately that's not what the game was going for and I don't blame them I just had a vision of a game that I could see myself playing for a lot longer and actually get excited about finding new fun and unique combinations going back to a previous example scourgebringer's lack of replayability is also linked to its blessings the in-game upgrade system each floor can take the average player 10 minutes to complete and will only offer one blessing and while the player will find minor number adjustment items throughout the level the blessings which are your usual roguelike in-game upgrades tend to also be number adjustments enemies have less Health enemies are stunned longer increased maxed health and the ones that aren't don't tend to affect the gameplay much differently than when I started the run I personally wish the character started off much weaker with fewer permanent abilities but was offered more mechanical adjustments throughout the run so that not only would the player feel powerful very quickly with additional blessings but every run would feel different all of this to say that in my eyes the best roguelikes out there are ones that allow me to start a fresh run and quickly turn into something different and unique from the previous ones using a balance of number and mechanical adjustments allowing the player to create unique synergies [Music] I have a lot of issues with Cult of the Lamb it's a game that combines action roguelike with management Sim creating this unique genre but playing through it I wasn't particularly impressed with the gameplay the generic combat mechanics the awkward 2D Sprites within a 3D space the lack of interesting and unique upgrades within runs and even the management elements where most of the creating and building felt much more limited than other similar but non-roguelike games like stardew Valley or Animal Crossing as much as I respected the idea of combining two very different genres I couldn't help but feel as if both gameplay differences were stepping over each other and weren't allowing either genres to be designed to its full potential but after finishing the game I would actually recommend it to many people because while I do have plenty of issues with it I cannot deny what I think is its strongest point the charm and visuals the art style the graphics visual effects animations and the adorable looking characters mixed with the contradicting satanic plot of the game even though I considered myself a fairly harsh critic while playing called the lamb I wasn't bothered as much with my criticisms because I was so involved with the world I was more excited about discovering new maps than the gameplay itself and the fact that I cared for my followers made me want to build them a comfortable Village for them to live in and ultimately I had a great time playing it it goes without saying that the artistic values and audio and visual is very important in the game but in a world where the AAA and Indie industry are both so prominent and yet so different I think it's important to talk about it in more detail Indie Games can't compete in making their games as big and Visually compact as a big budget AAA game but even though AAA companies may be releasing bigger and bigger games with better graphics and higher production values than the last one indie games where most roguelikes are born from understand their limitations and will instead create more unique and different visuals than most AAA games Pixel Art is generally considered the simplest art style to implement in a video game and while sometimes it may look dull and uninspiring other times it'll fit the game perfectly having played so many different roguelikes has shown me so many ways to use different art styles for instance the different character Styles between gameplay and menus and one step from Eden make each character look more alive while keeping the gameplay more active the blocky yet funny and adorable enemies in Rogue Tower the fact that everything in the legend of Bumbo is literally just cardboard cutouts a lot of these games require a lot of creativity artistically to come up with something that fits within each game's limitations another side to visuals that most people may not be aware of as much is visual effects or VFX VFX takes art and helps it fit more visually during gameplay these are the hidden elements that can transform any boring visuals into something much more alive and exciting using a lot of tricks that are almost invisible to the eye having worked with them myself it constantly blows my mind how simple and effective some of these effects are even in bigger budgeted games many are old techniques still being used to this day for instance giving feedback to taking damage can be done very simply using basic VFX when taking damage in undermined the character's Sprite will turn white for a frame and the screens border red for two frames this happens in just a flash but is enough to show the player taking damage another great example is the use of simple shapes hitting an enemy with the KC a melee weapon in enter the gungeon is incredibly satisfying and yet uses very simple VFX upon releasing the bat in front of an enemy the weapon will extend for a frame a simple bright white Circle will appear at the point of impact and will remain for a total of five frames motionless before splitting into a circular shape that only starts dissipating after another four frames hitting an enemy with a Casey is one of the most enjoyable feelings in the game and only uses simple animation and just a couple of shapes to execute the reason I bring this up is because a lot of players don't realize the impact of the effects in many of their favorite games if you've ever wondered why a game doesn't feel good to play but can't quite figure out why it's probably because of poor visual effects and of course roguelikes are not exclusive to using these techniques but for genre this popular and usually filled with action they are extremely important the visual effects of a game like curse of the Dead gods are so well executed that every action is crisp meaningful and single-handedly makes me want to come back to it because of how great the game feels as a whole thanks to it and last but not least there is audio I don't personally have any unique points to add to audio for this genre as opposed to any other game out there but good sound design can help make actions feel much more impactful and satisfying especially combined with good VFX and music is crucial to A Game's charm and overall enjoyment good Boss music for instance can really help bring the tension and intensity up for player I have not ironically been listening to dungreed's soundtrack many times and it does make me want to come back to playing the game and that is about everything if you've made it this far into the video then thank you roguelikes are a huge part of my life even professionally and I'm so happy to see the Indie industry be so successful in a world where quantity tends to take priority over quality even if I may sound critical at times I love these games and I'm just happy to share my experience with you all if you've enjoyed the content please feel free to subscribe and give the video a like it really helps the channel and I am planning on posting more roguelike content including a tier list rating over 75 roguelikes very soon if not out already and if you don't agree with some of my thoughts please comment below these are my opinions and I'd love to hear your side I also play Roblox on Stream So if you want to catch the next one feel free to hit the Bell to be notified foreign

Channel: PepperHead

Views: 421,963

Keywords: Roguelike, Roguelite, game dev, game development, Indie games, Crab Champions, Dead Cells, Nuclear Throne, Dead Estate, Enter The Gungeon, Gungeon, Hades, Fury Unleashed, Noita, Peglin, Scourge Bringer, Neon Abyss, Warm Snow, Revita, Wizard Of Legend, Slay The Spire, The Binding Of Isaac, Blazing Beaks, Dungreed, Gunfire Reborn, Backpack Hero, Undermine, Risk Of Rain, Brotato, Shovel Knight Dig, RogueBook, Voidigo, Tiny Rogues, Cult Of The Lamb, Moonlighter, Titan Souls, Rogue Tower

Id: rcX9BDgvkws

Length: 45min 22sec (2722 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 01 2023